Sea and space odysseys

GLOBE EDITORIAL - The Boston Globe: "THERE'S NO place like terra firma. The US astronauts who roared down from space yesterday, and the Russian submarine crew that rose from the black depths of the Pacific on Sunday, would probably agree on that -- as would everyone following their harrowing journeys.

A person who has never gone that high (225 miles from Earth), or that deep (625 feet below the surface of the ocean) might have trouble deciding which adventure would be more nerve-racking. The minisubmarine AS-28 Priz, immobilized by fishing net and cable like some mechanical whale, might gain the edge with its tomb-like quarters and grim certainty of a dwindling air supply.

Life in these claustrophobia-inducing naval vessels has been depicted in the movies, but most civilians have never seen the inside of a real one. That world has none of the presumed familiarity one can feel on the NASA website, or when looking at spectacular photos of spacewalks taken against the backdrop of the giant ball that is Earth.

No press corps recorded the dive as AS-28 Priz began what Russian officials later told Associated Press was a training mission. Submarines don't usually publicize their business, and make headlines only when something goes terribly wrong -- as it did five years ago with the sinking of the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk. But even then, no disaster video loop replays on news broadcasts.

One could only imagine the tension of men shivering together last week, breathing lightly to conserve oxygen in the dank craft as the temperature dropped to 40 degrees and a remote-controlled British submersible raced to their aid, eventually cutting them loose Sunday after three days trapped below.

The NASA mission had more of a handyman feel as astronauts Soichi Noguchi and Stephen Robinson tested a crack-caulking compound and Robinson maneuvered along the shuttle's belly, pulling off dangling pieces of tile filler. Mission managers spoke calmly of risk assessment and aerodynamics, and how the filler could cause trouble on reentry, but a ripped thermal blanket under the cockpit window would not.

Still, the spacewalkers looked awfully vulnerable out there, and the nation did not relax until repair calculations proved to be correct yesterday morning. While the seven crew members were not facing the immediate threat faced by their seven underwater counterparts, their lives were on the line from liftoff to landing -- and both sub and shuttle lived with the nightmares of recent history.

Both crews do jobs chosen -- as John F. Kennedy said of the challenges of space -- ''not because they are easy, but because they are hard." Welcome home, sea and sky explorers. It's good to have you back."